Sunday, 27 February 2011

Paris Flea Market Finds

The 126 films are all still sealed; the Kodacolor film has a 'develop before' date of March 1991, the Perutz films have a date of May 1974. Quite possibly a waste of €5, but with 126 film no longer manufactured, I was intrigued to see whether the films might produce images from a Kodak Instamatic camera I have. While event-crewing last summer, I didn't want to take a 'proper' camera on jobs with me, but finding the Instamatic 50 in a drawer with a film in it, I took this. The film was Agfa XRG 200, and trying the fail-safe method of stand developing in Rodinal, a black & white film developer, produced some images.

The Perutz film is more interesting than the Kodacolor: it's a transparency film, although it doesn't use the E6 system of development, the only colour transparency system still available. It was originally process-paid, so inside the box is an envelope for the film and a number of different addresses around the world for Perutz labs which would develop the film, and return the mounted slides.